July 2010 Volume 17 Number 01 Page 1

We will hold our annual picnic on July 3rd, 1 PM The picnic is being held this year at Don and Karen Surles’ home

514 Marilyn Rd., Smyrna DE 19977. Google for directions. Call Don at 302-653-9445 if you need assistance.

Star Gazer News

Newsletter of the Delmarva Stargazers www.delmarvastargazers.org

Prez comments… Well here I go again, serving another term as your president of the Delmarva Stargazers. The last time was 2006-2007 and I was still fairly new to the club. I certainly wasn’t then or am I now the most gifted amateur astronomer; I’m still on a steep learning curve with a long way to go. Being an expert amateur astronomer is not a job requirement for any of our officers. A saying you’ll hear frequently around our club members is we’re all amateurs; I take this to mean we are all willing and open to learning from others. We have a busy summer this year. The new Christiana Care facility allows us to meet in the summer months too. We were always kicked out of the other venues for summer school or other public uses. This is no longer a problem so please plan on attending our July and August meetings at the same time 7 PM; I will make an effort to get us out a little earlier around 8:30 if possible during the summer. This may allow us to follow up a meeting with Black Bird observ-ing. Both meeting days fall on a third quarter moon so we should be able to sneak in a few hours of dark sky observing. Karen Jennings has done the leg work to get us some real top flight presenters for the September and October meetings. In September David Eicher of Astronomy Magazine will be giving us a remote presentation and in October Ed Reznac from NASA Hubble Telescope team will be with us in person to talk about our favorite space telescope. My hat goes off to Karen for a great job. I’m also working with Edna DeVore from the SETI Institute to have one of the Kepler scientist give a remote presentation in August. So we have a lot of exciting things coming up already this year. The club picnic will be Saturday July 3rd at past president Don Surles’ house, 514 Marilyn Rd., Smyrna DE 19977. Google for directions. Call Don at 302-653-9445 if you need assistance. The club will supply the burgers, dogs and rolls, you are welcome to bring a covered dish, desert or other treat if you would like. However nothing is required we only ask that you come join the fun. We don’t even care if you’re a member; if you have an interest related to astron-omy and would like to meet us we can’t think of a better time to do it. You’ll find direction to Don’s house in this news letter. Until next month clear skies and keeping looking up. Jerry Truitt

Upcoming Events: PICNIC ! July 3rd 1PM Don & Karen’s Meeting ! July 6

th 7 PM SHWC

Observing ! July 9Th Dusk Equestrian Cntr

July 2010 Volume 17 Number 01 Page 2

Getting ready for July observing… Don Surles July is one of my favorite months for ob-serving because the summer Milky Way shows off its’ glory almost all night long. We learned the word “culminate” in our June meeting. This is the month for Hercules, Draco, Ophiuchus, Cepheus, Cygnus, Aquila, Sagit-tarius, and Scutum, to do their culminating act. This is the month for us to forget the faint fuzzy galaxies and concentrate on globular clusters because the globulars are “clustered” close to the plane of the Milky Way which is overhead this month. The Messier List is concentrated on this area of the sky. Here is my favorite list of the Mess-iers to be seen plus a few others that are nice to see. Most of these objects are easily seen in they typical 8” scope. A few of the nebulae will re-quire a narrow band filter such as a UHC or OIII…all of them can be seen “better” with the filters. You may want to scan your electronic databases for oth-ers…feel free to add to the list. I will attach the Ex-cel file so you can modify it. So, get yourself a set of star charts, a planisphere, some bug repellent (bugs like to look thru the eyepiece…they congregate at the focuser and on your ears whilst you look). A Telrad and a finder scope such as an 8 to 10 power of 50MM or greater will make finding these critters more enjoy-able. For those of you who choose to use GoTo and digital setting circles vs star hopping you may want to make a mental note of where these objects reside in the heavens so that when your “battries” die or your system crashes you will not be lost in space. You also may want to find a copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology or Bulfinch’s Mythology or The Age of Fable…read some of the stories so that you can enjoy the full panoply of Greek gods and their interactions with the mortals of yesteryear whilst doing your thing with the telescope. Bugs…I hate bug spray – it makes my skin burn! As a replacement for bug spray there is a battery powered bugoff device that you can hang from your focuser…a charge lasts 12 hours and does a pretty good job of keeping the skeeters at bay. It is made by OFF and costs about $10 at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot…you can also clip it to your belt. It works well as long as you stay within a 12-15 foot circle so take the wheels off your scope and you should be bug free.

Constellation Object Description

Hercules M13

Globular M92

Ophiuchus

M14

Globular

M10

M12

M107

M9

M5

IC4665 Open cluster

Cepheus M52 Open cluster

Cygnus

M39 Open cluster

M29

Alberio Double star

NGC 6992 Veil nebula

NGC6960

NGC6940 Open cluster

NGC6826 Blinking Nebula

Sagittarius

M75

Globular

M55

M54

M70

M69

M28

M22

M8 Nebula

M20

M21

Open cluster M23

M24

M25

Scutum

M11 Open cluster

M26

M16 Nebula Nebula M17

M18 Open cluster

Sagitta M71 Open cluster

M27 Nebula

July 2010 Volume 17 Number 01 Page 3

Your 2010-2011 Officers Office Officer Phone email President Jerry Truitt 410-885-3327 President-elect Lyle Jones 302-736-9842 Secretary Michael Lecuyer 302-284-3734 Treasurer Kathy Sheldon 302-422-4695 Past President Don Surles 302-653-9445

Hatless Blackbird Observing – June 7, 2010 Don Surles

Do you know what time it gets dark enuf to star gaze on June 7? Somewhere around 9:45-10:00 PM. I arrived at Blackbird around 7:45 with the big ‘un…the 25” Obsession. Setup was almost complete when Doug Norton arrived around 8:00; with a couple of twists on the collimation knobs by Doug the scope was dead on in collimation. What do you do for 2 hours waiting for darkness? Well, the air was clear and the temps were dropping from the very comfortable 75F; there were no bugs or skeeters, and very slight breeze stirred the air. So, whilst Doug unpacked and set up, I got my lounge chair out, along with a cigar, and lit up and laid back…come on darkness. By 8:30 Venus was shining in the west and this was my cue to align the Telrad and finder scope with the Ob-session. So I swung the scope around to the west and there was no Venus…let me walk back to my lounge chair…there’s Venus…walk back to the scope…and, well Venus is a bit shy and is hiding behind a tree twixt it and us. Next time I will setup farther from the tree. By 9:00, Vega was shining nicely in the east and with a few adjustments I had the Telrad, finder scope and main scope synched up…all looking at the same piece heavenly real estate simultane-ously. By this time Chuck Jennings had arrived and a neighbor of the site, John, stopped by. With John’s arrival came the bugs, not that John brought them. The air stopped moving and the bugs conquered the site. My bug-off de-vice didn’t phaze them. They chose my balding head as their playground…I guess their infrared sensors were sensing the top of my head was the warmest target and their batteries were fully charged caused they kept my head in their crosshairs all night. So, this may be a signal that we, ie, us balding Star Gazer friends, may need to consider some Star Gazer headgear. We can talk about this at the next meeting. Finally it was dark enuf to begin the night of viewing. I started with M13, M104, and a few other old favorites. It was not dark enuf yet…damn, those bugs were getting more vicious. The contrast that was not found in the eye-piece was becoming more evident to the bugs…the contrast in temperature twixt the top of my head and the nighttime air. I bet my ol noggin was as bright as the sun in their infrared eyepiece. Chuck piggybacked on my scope…he was all packed up for his trip Cherry Springs the next day. We looked at more of the favorites…the Ring and the Dumbell nebulae at 350X with an OIII filter. Chuck now knows why the Dumbell is sometimes called the “apple core”…last night it looked just like what you leave when you eat an apple…the eyepiece was full of apple core at 350X with the 9mm Nagler. M3, M104 again, M86 & M87, M97, M108…were all high in the sky; and they were also very high on the ladder. We spent a lot of time on M51 and at 240X it filled the fov of the 13mm Nagler…just gorgeous. We passed on M101…it was too straight up…remember Dob’s Hole? With a 25” F5 and a 10 foot ladder Dob’s Hole becomes a real challenge. Well, the bugs didn’t let up. My head must have gotten hotter cause they became EXCITED and they MULTI-PLIED, especially when I approached the eyepiece. By this time the hardware in my right leg decided it had enuf of star gazing and let me know it wanted no more ladder climbing. But, we had not seen NGC 4565…the Needle Galaxy, in Coma Berenices. I searched for it for a few minutes and the bugs became more excited. So, I deferred to Doug and let him find the galaxy whilst I slapped the bugs. He finally located the galaxy and the Needle was spectacular with the 13mm Nagler…edge to edge in the eyepiece. That was the last object…time to breakdown and go home. It was close to midnight when I left. Doug was still observing. He had a hat on his head.

this is what i saw this night...but the smaller galaxies were not there. the bright star was very visible below the bulge

July 2010 Volume 17 Number 01 Page 4

Pj Riley In the past several issues, I’ve presented historic facts and figures from the astronomical past.

Good News! I’ve got more ! What do you know about Brother Bruno ? No, not my brother Bruno, Brother Giordano Bruno.

Filippo Bruno was born in 1548 and was burned at the stake on February 17, 1600. You say ‘Who’s Fil-lippo ?’ Keep reading. Notice the timeline ! Are you thinking of any other astronomers who had dealing with the Catholic Church in this time period? But I’ve jumped to the end too quick. Let me back up a bit.

Bruno was an Italian Dominican friar, philoso-pher, mathematician and astronomer, best known as a proponent of the infinity of the universe. He is the first man to have conceptualized the universe as a continuum where the stars we see at night are identical in nature to the Sun.

He entered the Dominican Order at the monas-tery of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, taking the name Giordano, after Giordano Crispo, his metaphysics tutor. He continued his studies there, completing his novi-tiate, and became an ordained priest in 1572 at age 24. During his time in Naples he became known for his skill with the art of memory and on one occasion traveled to Rome to demonstrate his mnemonic system before Pope Pius V and Cardinal Rebiba. Bruno in later years claimed that the Pope accepted his dedication to him of the lost work “On The Ark of Noah” at this time.

Cosmology before Bruno According to Aristotle and Plato, the universe was a finite sphere. Its ultimate limit was the primum mobile, whose diurnal rotation was conferred upon it by a transcendental God, not part of the universe, a motionless prime mover and first cause. The fixed stars were part of this celestial sphere, all at the same fixed distance from the immobile earth at the center of the sphere. Ptolemy had numbered these at 1,022, grouped into 48 constellations. The plan-ets were each fixed to a transparent sphere.

In the second half of the 16th century, the theo-ries of Copernicus (1473–1543) began diffusing through Europe. Copernicus conserved the idea of planets fixed to solid spheres, but considered the apparent motion of the stars to be an illusion caused by the rotation of the Earth on its axis; he also preserved the notion of an im-mobile center, but it was the Sun rather than the Earth. Copernicus also argued the Earth was a planet orbiting the Sun once every year. However he maintained the Ptolemaic hypothesis that the orbits of the planets were composed of perfect circles and that the stars were fixed on a stationary outer sphere. Few astronomers of Bruno's time accepted Co-pernicus's heliocentric model. Among those who did were Michael Maestlin, Christoph Rothmann, Johannes Kepler, Thomas Digges, and Galileo Galilei.

Bruno's cosmology Bruno believed that the Earth revolves around the sun, and that the apparent rotation of the heavens is an illu-

sion caused by the rotation of the Earth around its axis. Bruno also held that because God is infinite the universe would reflect this fact in boundless immensity. Bruno also asserted that the stars in the sky were really other suns like our own, around which orbited other planets. He indicated that support for such beliefs in no way contradicted scrip-ture or true religion. In 1584, Bruno published two important philosophi-cal dialogues, in which he argued against the planetary spheres. (Two years later, Rothmann did the same, as did Tycho Brahe in 1587.) Bruno's infinite universe was filled with a substance—a "pure air," aether, or spiritus -- that offered no resistance to the heavenly bodies which, in Bruno's view, rather than being fixed, moved under their own impetus. Most dramatically, he completely abandoned the idea of a hierarchical universe. The Earth was just one more heavenly body, as was the Sun. God had no particu-lar relation to one part of the infinite universe more than any other. God, according to Bruno, was as present on Earth as in the Heavens, an immanent God, the One subsuming in itself the multiplicity of existence, rather than a remote heavenly deity. Bruno also affirmed that the universe was homoge-neous, made up everywhere of the four elements (water, earth, fire, and air), rather than having the stars be com-posed of a separate quintessence. Essentially, the same physical laws would operate everywhere, although the use of that term is anachronistic. Space and time were both conceived as infinite. There was no room in his stable and permanent universe for the Christian notions of divine crea-tion and Last Judgement. Under this model, the Sun was simply one more star, and the stars all suns, each with its own planets. Bruno saw a solar system of a sun/star with planets as the fundamental unit of the universe. According to Bruno, infi-nite God necessarily created an infinite universe, formed of an infinite number of solar systems, separated by vast re-gions full of Aether, because empty space could not exist. (Bruno did not arrive at the concept of a galaxy.) Comets were part of a synodus ex mundis of stars, and not—as other authors maintained at the time—ephemeral creations, divine instruments, or heavenly messengers. Each comet was a world, a permanent celestial body, formed of the four elements. "All things are one," says Bruno. The soul of the universe is conceived of as intelligent, the ordinator of the world itself, the interior force of everything. Such a force is not transcendent, but immanent; it adheres in things. It is God, conceived of as "Natura naturans," producing all and ordaining all to its end; it is infinite. The world, the work of "Natura naturans," is "Natura naturata," which, as the effect of an infinite cause, is also infinite. Individual souls (and not only the human soul, but the soul of every individual essence, since for Bruno every-thing is animate) are the passing shades of the eternal be-coming of the world. Bruno calls them monads. Birth is the

(See Bruno on pg 5)

Giordano Bruno

July 2010 Volume 17 Number 01 Page 5

Magazine Subscriptions As a paid member of DMSG, you can sign up/renew your S&T or Astronomy mags through the club for a discount over private rate. S&T, reg. $42.95, is $32.95 thru DMSG, Astronomy, reg. $44, is $34. See Michael Lecuyer for details.

individuation of the infinite in the finite; death indicates the return of the finite to the infinite. Thus far the concept of Bruno is decidedly monis-tic immanentism. Nevertheless, besides the mens imbed-ded in all things, that is, the soul of the world immanent in the universe, Bruno admits also the mens super omnia, that is, God, who transcends the world. But this God (quite different from the Christian God, because the world does not depend upon Him) is the object of faith and not of sci-ence; Bruno admits this in order to overcome the material-istic pantheism of his system. Bruno's cosmology is marked by infinitude, homo-geneity, and isotropy, with planetary systems distributed evenly throughout. Matter follows an active animistic prin-ciple: it is intelligent and discontinuous in structure, made up of discrete atoms. This animism (and a corresponding disdain for mathematics as a means to understanding) is the most dramatic respect in which Bruno's cosmology differs from what today passes for a common-sense pic-ture of the universe. m Imprisonment, trial and execution, 1592–1600 In Rome he was imprisoned for seven years during his lengthy trial, lastly in the Tower of Nona. Some impor-tant documents about the trial are lost, but others have been preserved, among them a summary of the proceed-ings that was rediscovered in 1940. The numerous charges against Bruno, based on some of his books as well as on witness accounts, included blasphemy, immoral conduct, and heresy in matters of dogmatic theology, and involved some of the basic doctrines of his philosophy and cosmology. Luigi Firpo lists them as follows: • Holding opinions contrary to the Catholic Faith and speaking against it and its ministers. • Holding erroneous opinions about the Trinity, about Christ's divinity and Incarnation. • Holding erroneous opinions about Christ. • Holding erroneous opinions about Transubstantiation and Mass. • Claiming the existence of a plurality of worlds and their eternity. • Believing in metempsychosis and in the transmigration of the human soul into brutes. • Dealing in magics and divination. • Denying the Virginity of Mary.

In these grim circumstances Bruno continued his Ve-netian defensive strategy, which consisted in bowing to the Church's dogmatic teachings, while trying to preserve the basis of his philosophy. In particular Bruno held firm to his belief in the plurality of worlds, although he was ad-monished to abandon it. His trial was overseen by the In-quisitor Cardinal Bellarmine, who demanded a full recanta-tion, which Bruno eventually refused. Instead he appealed in vain to Pope Clement VIII, hoping to save his life

(Bruno from page 4) through a partial recantation. The Pope expressed himself in favor of a guilty verdict. Consequently, Bruno was de-clared a heretic, and told he would be handed over to secu-lar authorities. According to the correspondence of one Gaspar Schopp of Breslau, he is said to have made a threatening gesture towards his judges and to have replied: "Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego

accipiam” (Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with

greater fear than I receive it)

The trial of Giordano Bruno by the Roman Inquisition. He was quickly turned over to the secular authori-

ties and, on February 17, 1600 in the Campo de' Fiori, a central Roman market square, "his tongue imprisoned be-cause of his wicked words" he was burned at the stake. His ashes were dumped into the Tiber river. All Bruno's works were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1603.

However, the webpage of the Vatican Secret Ar-chives discussing the document containing a summary of legal proceedings against him in Rome, suggests a differ-ent perspective: "In the same rooms where Giordano Bruno was questioned, for the same important reasons of the rela-tionship between science and faith, at the dawning of the new astronomy and at the decline of Aristotle’s philosophy, sixteen years later, Cardinal Bellarmino, who then con-tested Bruno’s heretical theses, summoned Galileo Galilei, who also faced a famous inquisitorial trial, which, luckily for him, ended with a simple abjuration."

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) asserts that "Bruno was not condemned for his defence of the Coperni-can system of astronomy, nor for his doctrine of the plural-ity of inhabited worlds, but for his theological errors, among which were the following: that Christ was not God but merely an unusually skilful magician, that the Holy Ghost is the soul of the world, that the Devil will be saved, etc

Some of this material is from Wikipedia, For more info, explore the universe, or at least, the

internet.

July 2010 Volume 17 Number 01 Page 6

“Telescope Transformation – Making Observing Easier” Tom Koonce and Don Bryden Antelope Valley Astronomy Club, Inc. Lancaster, California What if the sky was clear and steady, the temperature was comfortable, and all that kept you from observing the stars was that you couldn’t physically move your telescope outside? What if you were unable to stand for long periods of time at the eyepiece without significant pain? What if manipulating small parts with your hands made it difficult and frus-trating to assemble your telescope for the night’s viewing? Situations like these are more common than major telescope manufacturers seem to acknowledge. The reality is that amateur astronomy has a ‘mature’ demographic, and many of us have physical limitations like these that hinder us from being the best observers that we can be. The good news is that there are ways to maximize our enjoyment of astronomy through modification of commercial telescope equipment, adaptation, and innovation. An excellent example of such modification and innovation was Antelope Valley Astronomy Club (Palmdale, CA) President, Don Bryden’s recent project undertaken for a close observing friend. His friend, Duane, has some significant physical limitations and found it cumbersome, and sometimes even dangerous, to lift his C10, 10” f/4.7 newtonian onto his CG-5 mount. The manual non-GoTo mount had small controls and locking levers that were difficult for Duane to ma-nipulate. The telescope provided great views, but because of its weight, lack of handholds, and slippery sides, it had been dropped on occasion, luckily without serious damage, but it was clearly not the right telescope configuration for the user.

Don Bryden and another mutual friend first thought to help Duane with this project by simply mounting the newtonian in a dobsonian-style cradle mount. But as they thought this through, they realized that a solid tube dobsonian would present transportability prob-lems and be hard for Duane to store. Since Don had recently finished building a truss-tube dobsonian for himself and had enjoyed the work, he suggested converting the C10 into a truss-tube scope. High level design considerations were that the resulting tele-scope would have to be simple for Duane to setup, use, and store. Other considerations were that since Duane has difficulty with the use of his hands, any hardware should be easy to manipulate, but hard to lose.

During the build process, the truss-tube dob emerged and incorporated further considerations of the user’s needs. The focuser was set at a 45 degree angle from the plane of the altitude motion for ease of use and the focuser height was tailored to a convenient height for Duane when in a seated position. A stable 14” base was added and di-mensioned so that the secondary cage fits into the mirror box which fits into the base for convenient transport and stor-age. Each individual section is light weight with easy ways to hold onto them.

(Telescope on page 8)

The June Sky—From Half-Hours with the Stars (1911) RICHARD A. PROCTOR, F.R.A.S.

The Great Bear (Ursa Major) is now in the northwest, his paws near the horizon. The Pointers (α and β) direct us to the Pole Star, (α of the Little Bear, Ursa Minor). A line from the Pole Star to the Guardians of the Pole is in the position of the minute hand of a clock about 7 minutes before an hour. Below the Little Bear we see the Camelopard, a little to the east of due north. The Dragon (Draco) curves round from between the Pointers and the Pole, above the Little Bear to-ward the east, then upward to near the point overhead, its head, with the bright stars β and γ, being highest. Low down in the west we see Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices), and one star of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici) is seen in the chart between Coma and the Great Bear. The Herdsman {Boötes) occupies the mid-heaven in the west, the Crown (Corona Borealis) higher up, and due west, Hercules, between the Crown and the point overhead.

Low down, extending from the west to near the southwest, we find the Virgin (Virgo), the bright Spica near its set-ting place. In the southwest are the Scales (Libra), and farther to the left, extending from the Scales to low down near the south, we find the Scorpion (Scorpio), one of the finest of the constellations, Antares, the rival of Mars (as the name means), marking its heart. Above the Scorpion and the Scales are the Serpent Bearer (Serpentarius or Ophiuchus) and the Serpent (Serpens), extending right across him to near the Crown, after which the Serpent seems reaching.

A little east due south, low down, we find the Archer (Sagittarius); in the southeast, low down, the Sea Goat (Capricornus); and farther east, and lower down, the Water Bearer (Aquarius). Above the Sea Goat is the Eagle (Aquila), with the bright bluish-white star Altair; on its left the pretty little Dolphin (Delphinus), and above the Dolphin, nearly over-head, the Lyre (Lyra), with the bluish-white star Vega (even brighter than Altair) nearly overhead.

Below the Lyre we see the Swan (Cygnus), due east; and below the Swan the Winged Horse (Pegasus), upside down, as usual.

In the northeast, Andromeda, the Chained Lady, is rising, her head marked by the star α (which was also called δ of Pegasus). (The "Square of Pegasus" is formed by α of Andromeda and α, β, and γ of Pegasus.)

Between the north and northeast is Cassiopeia, the Seated Lady, and above her, her husband, King Cepheus. And lastly Perseus is just rising, between the north and northeast.

July 2010 Volume 17 Number 01 Page 7

Carbon Stars Doug Norton A carbon star is a late type giant star similar to a red giant (or occasionally to a red dwarf) whose atmos-phere contains more carbon than oxygen; the two elements combine in the upper layers of the star, forming carbon monoxide, which consumes all the oxygen in the atmosphere, leaving carbon atoms free to form other carbon com-pounds, giving the star a "sooty" atmosphere and a strikingly red appearance. In normal stars (such as the Sun), the atmosphere is richer in oxygen than carbon. Carbon stars have quite distinctive spectral characteristics, and they were first recognized by their spectra by Angelo Secchi in the 1860s — a pioneer in astronomical spectroscopy. In the beginning of stellar spectral typing, there were two categories, R and N which have been combined into one newer group called type C stars or Carbon Stars. Most classical carbon stars are variable stars of the long period variable types with periods over 100 days. Observing carbon stars Using a telescope or binoculars will work well for observing these stars. I have pulled the best stars from many sources for this list. I will describe the most famous ones and the others I will just let you do some research to find. Most of the stars on the list will be visible in the summer. A few will be visible in the winter. Check the star's mini-mum/maximum magnitudes to make sure they will be bright enough for observing in binoculars. Some vary by many magnitudes and will require a telescope to observe at minimum magnitude. Y CVn (La Superba): A semi-regular variable red supergiant in the constellation Canes Venatici with a visual magnitude range of 4.8 to 6.3 and a period of 158 days. It was named by Angelo Secchi for its intense red color. La Superba is one of the coolest known stars. It belongs to the rare J class of carbon stars whose members display an unusual abundance of the carbon-13 isotope. The red color of Y CVn is caused by large amounts of carbon in the star's outer layers. Absorption of light of shorter wavelengths by these molecules results in the striking ruddy colora-tion. R Lep (Hind's Crimson Star): It is named after famous British astronomer J. R. Hind, who observed it in 1845. It is reddest when it is dimmest, which occurs every 427.07 days. The star's discoverer reported that it ap-peared "like a drop of blood on a black field." Mu Cep (Herschel's Garnet Star): It is one of the largest and most luminous stars known in the Milky Way. The deep red color of Mu Cephei was noted by William Herschel, who described it as "a very fine deep garnet col-our, such as the periodical star ο Ceti," The star is approximately 1,650 times larger than our sun's solar radius, and were it placed in the Sun's position, its radius would reach between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. Here are the remaining stars in the list. Most should be visible this summer. Happy Hunting! U Hya X Cnc VY UMa UX Dra RY Dra WZ Cas U Cam S Cep T Lyr WZ Cas V Aql TX Pis V Hya

MY FIRST TRIP TO THE CHERRY SPRINGS STAR PARTY Tony Mullins

I have heard for a few years how dark and great the skies are at Cherry Springs Pennsylvania, so this year I paid my forty bucks and went up in my van. I left about 11AM Thursday and got there a little before 6 PM. Parts of the drive were beautiful and on winding mountain roads. I was amazed at how dark the skies were. I saw no light pollution. Thursday night I observed, with fellow Del-marva stargazers Chuck Jennings, his wife Karen, and his sons Gabe and Nate, using Chuck’s 16 inch reflector. The man near me had a 17.5 in. reflector with Naglers. It was an awesome combination, particularly with M13 in Hercules. It was hard to get enthused about my 8 in Dob. with these superior scopes to look through.

There was some cloud cover but we looked where we could. I saw many of the Messier objects especially the galaxies in Virgo. It got really cloudy at 2:30 AM so we decided to call it a night. Friday I stargazed with members of the Harford County Maryland Astronomical Society, of which I am also a member. Some of the members present were Tim, Jeremy, Joe, Gary, Larry and a few others, and me. Joe has a 20in Dob. The sky Friday was the second best I have ever seen next to Williams Arizona. In my two nights I also saw Venus, Mars, Saturn, many of the double stars including Cor Caroli, Mizar-Alcor, Ep-silon Lyrae, and Albireo. I saw planetary nebula M57 and star clusters, Ring Nebula, triplets, plus many other objects. The belt of the Milky Way was great some say there is a little light pollution but I couldn’t see it. They were pre-dicting rain but if it rained it was after I went to bed. We got many great hours of observing in despite the forecast for clouds. Do not let the meteorologists ruin your stargazing. My feet and back got tired clouds were moving is so I called it a night.

Saturday many people left. I decided I had enough so I left and saw the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.

July 2010 Volume 17 Number 01 Page 8

Moondark is on hiatus this month. The column should return soon. Look here or keep an eye out on the Moondark web site ).

How to Join the Delmarva Stargazers: Anyone with an interest in any aspect of astronomy is welcome NAME________________________________________________________________________________________ ADDRESS_____________________________________________________________________________________ CITY, STATE & ZIP______________________________________________________________________________ E-MAIL ADDRESS (If any)_________________________________________________________________________ Do you need the newsletter snail mailed to you (Y/N)?___________________________________________________ Please attach a check for $15 made payable to Delmarva Stargazers and mail to Kathy Sheldon, 20985 Fleatown Rd, Lincoln, DE 19960. Call club President Don Surles at 302-653-9445 for more information.

Large knobs and thoughtful design details make the scope easy to use

The spider and mirror cell were from the original design and required an allen wrench for adjustment. Don made a slot in the side of the secondary cage so that the allen wrench was always available. No other tools are required for setup and adjustments. A major design decision was the method to attach the truss tubes in four groups of two at the top to wooden fittings that in turn receive the secondary cage. To make the attachment of the secondary cage to the truss-tube wooden fittings, bicycle seat post quick-release clamps were used which are simple to operate and impossible to lose. The resulting scope was dubbed “Marvin the Martian” for its green color and custom Marvin the Martian emblem. It took approxi-mately 20 hours of Don’s labor spread over three months, allowing him time to think through the design challenges that arose. The telescope holds collimation well, is comfortable to use for Duane and is consid-ered a resounding success by him. The telescope was entered in the 2010 Riverside Telescope Makers Conference contest and won a spe-cial Merit Award.

(Telescope from page 6)